Techs Finish Higher; Blue Chips Flat

N E W Y O R K, Aug. 13

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AOL Time Warner Inc. fell $1.50 to $42.80. A round of
layoffs is about to hit the company's Internet unit as the
media giant tries to ensure it will meet its 2001 financial
targets, sources familiar with the situation said.

ROHN Industries Inc. tumbled more than 37 percent, or $2.17
to $3.68. The telecommunications equipment provider, warned it
would not meet its 2001 financial forecasts due to the
continued spending cuts by customers amid the global economic
slowdown.

Cendant Corp. agreed to buy discount air ticket seller
Cheap Tickets Inc. for $425 million in cash, as the franchising
giant looks to break into the online travel agency business.
Cheap Tickets soared 37.80 percent, or $4.48 to $16.33, while
Cendant was up 46 cents at $19.66.

Investors will also take cues from a heavy economic
calendar that includes weak July retail sales, ahead of the
open on Tuesday.

Also on the plate this week are reports such
as June business inventories as well as July figures for U.S.
industrial production and capacity utilization, due on
Wednesday, and Thursday's U.S. Consumer Price Index for July, a
key gauge of retail level inflation, and weekly jobless claims
numbers.

Friday brings a preliminary consumer sentiment
reading for August from the University of Michigan.

But no key data was slated for release today.

"I don't think anyone is looking to be very aggressive
unless we get some surprise information, some major takeover or
something. This week we have a lot of economic numbers, that
will bounce us around," said Tom Sparico, trader at hedge fund
Bengal Partners in Stamford, Connecticut.

"The big picture is that the (economic) slowdown is
decelerating but given the murkiness of the future outlook as
far as how long it will take to really get capital spending
going … the recovery is going to be sluggish."

Friday’s Dow Rally

U.S. blue-chip stocks posted their biggest rise in a month
Friday, reversing steep losses, as Wall Street bet that good
inflation news would encourage the Federal Reserve to whittle
away again at interest rates and spur growth in the nation's
floundering economy.

Technology stocks notched small losses, recovering from a
more than 2 percent tumble early in the day after analysts
slashed their earnings forecasts for software giants like
Oracle.